A Moment of Peace
by Julchen M. Liddell
Summary: Riou and Nanami sit on the roof of the castle and share some of their thoughts, while observing the people below. Oneshot.


**Whooops, I've been absent from this fandom for a while. Well, here this is. Please feel free to drop a review, and thank you for reading!**

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The roof of a tall castle was probably not a safe place for the leader of an army to be, but Riou didn't particularly care at the moment. For the first time in nearly a year, he had time to himself. No battles to fight, no campaigns to plan, no evil princes to defeat, and no passing out for a week after. In the days that had passed since Luca Blight was taken down, Riou hadn't had much to do at all. And he loved it. He was fifteen-going-on-sixteen years old, after all, and the whole war thing kind of put a load of stress on him.

Which was why he was up here, where Feather usually perched. The griffin had thoughtfully decided to vacate the premises when he saw the young general climbing up the stairs. Riou was sitting, leaning over the railing while his feet dangled hundreds of feet off the ground, toes pointed up out of fear that he would lose his slightly too large boots and they would fall and kill someone down below. A light wind blew gently over his face, pushing back his brown hair. It was getting a bit long, Riou realized; he would have to get it cut soon.

The young general slumped over the railing, propping his head up with his elbow. This war was taking all the energy out of him. Riou didn't regret becoming the leader of the Dunan Army, but that didn't mean he had to like it all the time. In fact, he disliked it most of the time. Between the constant fighting and, well, everything involving Jowy, Riou became discouraged very quickly. The only thing keeping him afloat was probably all the support from Nanami, however grudgingly it was given.

Almost on cue, the door to the roof creaked open and someone stepped out behind him. Riou had heard those footsteps often enough to know they belonged to his sister. He wondered briefly how she found him up here, then discarded the thought. She was Nanami, she just knew these things.

"Hey," he greeted, and she went over to sit next to him, removing her shoes so they wouldn't fall as well.

"What are you doing all the way up here?" she asked, settling down and slinging her arms over the rail in the same position he was in.

Riou smiled. "Hiding."

"From what?" Nanami snorted. He suspected she already knew the answer, but told her anyway. It was nice to talk about these things once in a while.

"Shu," he began. "I hardly get a break before he's after me to talk about something war-related again. Apple's almost as bad, and even when I'm not being hounded by the two of them there's always someone that needs my help somehow."

Nanami made a face. "Doesn't it bother you?"

It wasn't the first time she had asked that question. Riou knew it bothered _her _well enough. But he just shrugged and replied, "Not much. Sometimes, when I'm really tired, but mostly I don't mind. I like helping people more than I like sitting around doing nothing."

"You don't rest enough," Nanami scolded.

"Yeah, well. I'll be honest when I say I'll be glad when this thing's over."

"Me too."

There was a beat of silence, and almost simultaneously the two teenagers began methodically swinging their legs back and forth. It was a habit picked up during their childhood; Riou could remember they would climb as high as they could up the tree behind their house and swing their legs like this, or go out into the woods with Jowy and sit by a pond and let their toes skim the water. If he closed his eyes he could almost pretend he was back in Kyaro with his sister and best friend.

"This is stupid," Nanami mumbled as they looked out over the castle. "This whole war is stupid."

"Mmm," Riou hummed, neither agreeing or otherwise. He didn't have any opinion like that towards the matter. It was just something he needed to get done. The only thing he personally felt towards it was regret that he couldn't convince Jowy to stop what he was doing. He wished his friend would come back into his senses.

"You know what we should do once this is over?" Nanami asked. It was definitely not the first time she had broached this subject, but Riou didn't really get tired of hearing her talk about it. Hearing about what they could do in the future, and planning for it, was almost as nice as pretending it could actually happen.

"What?" he replied, to humor her.

"We should get out of Jowston and go somewhere nice. Like down south, the Island Nations or Falena or somewhere. We could find Jowy wherever he is and take Pilika too, and the four of us could go and live where it's warm and nobody could find us to bother us about stupid things again."

"That sounds nice."

"Yeah. And maybe we could travel around a bit down there too. Falena is a touristy place, I think. There's probably a lot of cool places we could see."

"I think the Island Nations is more like that. We could spend time there."

"I hear the food is awesome."

"They get wine imports from Kanakan."

"Hey!" Nanami grinned, poking her brother in the side. "What are you doing talking about wine, kiddo? You're not old enough to drink anything!"

"So are you!"

He squirmed, fighting down giggles. Only Nanami knew he was ticklish. It was a well-kept secret between the two of them. Riou ducked his head and returned his gaze down to the castle town. Millie and Meg could be seen eating outside on the patio in front of Tai Ho's kitchen, and sitting near them were Hanna, Kinnison, and Ayda. It was amazing how much could be seen from so high up.

"Look down there," Nanami said suddenly, sullen mood forgotten. She pointed downwards to the yard next to the barracks. "What's going on?"

Riou followed her gaze and squinted, sheilding his eyes from the sun. There was some action going down in the yard that looked like... "Flik and Viktor. They're sparring."

"Huh," Nanami said. "You have good eyesight. Who's winning?"

"It looks like a tie so far, but Flik's moving faster. Viktor's putting more strength into his swings though, it looks hard to tell who'll win in the end."

"Flik'll kick Viktor's ass. Viktor's too slow. In a serious fight he could use his lightning rune too."

"You're probably right."

They glanced at each other and both started snickering.

"Viktor'd kill us if he heard us talking like that," Riou chuckled.

"Heh, that's _if _he heard us. There's no way he could from all the way up here," Nanami pointed out. "Let's be honest though, if either of them fought Grandpa Genkaku he'd have them both laid out on the ground in three seconds flat."

"You're right about that too," he grinned.

It was a long while before either of them spoke again. The sun was beginning to go down, though the activity of the castle tenants didn't slow at all. Hilda was making her way to Yoshino's to drop off some laundry. Teresa Wisemail, clearly taking the same sort of break Riou was, was walking along the stone pathway arm-in-arm with Shin. Shin said something and the young mayor turned to laugh, her golden hair catching the sun. The entire scene was so peaceful, it was hard to believe everyone there belonged to an army, which was currently at war. Genkaku Castle was mostly shielded from all the violence going on in the other regions of the City-States.

Something stirred in the corner of Riou's vision and he looked down to the lower-left of the castle wall. A small, barely-visible figure was moving in the shadows, and if he looked hard enough he could see individual features. Tir McDohl stood from where he had apparently been sitting, looked around, and began working his way slowly and stealthily back to the barracks.

Riou laughed lightly despite himself and Nanami looked over.

"What's up?"

He pointed downwards. "Tir. Thinks he's hiding."

Nanami squinted in the direction he was pointing, shielding her eyes from the sun. "Huh. I'd say he was hiding pretty well, I didn't see him."

"I didn't either, until he started moving," Riou replied.

His sister's response was another absent hum, and when he glanced her way he saw she was frowning at him. She caught him looking and immediately stopped.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"What was that look you were giving me?"

"Nothing!"

"I can tell when you're lying," the young general sighed, slouching against the rail. "If something's bothering you I want to know so I can help."

"You help too many people already, don't worry about me," Nanami grumbled.

There was a long pause, during which Riou was preparing to just let the matter drop for the moment (because Nanami always came to talk to him about everything sooner or later), but as he was considering getting back up and going downstairs to eat, she surprised him with, "Don't become like him."

"Huh?" Riou blinked. "Like who?"

"Tir McDohl. Don't be like him."

The fifteen year old stared at her. "Sorry, but...what's wrong with Tir? I'm nothing like him anyway, so..."

"Of course you are," Nanami huffed in response. She began counting off her fingers, "He kicked ass in some war up here on the northern continent, just like you're doing now. You're both kids who did that after being kicked out of your country, you both have one of those True Runes or whatever-"

"I only have half, Jowy has-"

"It doesn't matter!" Nanami burst out, standing suddenly over her brother. "The point is, he's down there hiding in the shadows because every time someone tries to talk to him, he freaks out! He's completely antisocial and cold and I'm sure he's very nice, really, underneath it all, but he's just...ugh!" She frustratedly grabbed at her hair. "He just seems so depressed and sad, like you just wanna give him a hug, you know? But he'd run away if you tried.

"And now you're in the exact same situation Tir was in that made him like that, and I'm just scared that...there won't be any of you left once all this is over," she finished in a whisper. "You're hiding right now too, aren't you? You said so yourself."

Riou swallowed thickly and exhaled a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding once he realized she was finished ranting. That had certainly come out of nowhere; normally Nanami complained about the war itself and Jowy and wanting to run away. She talked about how it affected Riou's physical health. But she'd never expressed any concern over how it would affect him emotionally, and he honestly hadn't given it much thought either. What was he supposed to say to alleviate those concerns?

He bit his lip and began, "It's not...something we need to worry about now, is it? Luca Blight may be dead but the war's not over yet." He forced smile. "And you know, I'm perfectly fine now."

Nanami's hard expression didn't change. He hadn't really expected it to. "You're sort of fine. You hide out places, like right now."

"I think," Riou said thoughtfully, turning his attention away from his sister and back to the ground below, "Tir's issue is that he's lost so many people. He's told me about it." Another heavy sigh rushed out. "I don't have many people to lose, and the most important one is still here."

He grinned up at Nanami, who looked slightly bewildered before recovering.

"Well of course I'm still here," she snapped. "What, you think you're getting rid of me? Ha! Good luck with that. Pardon me for being worried about anything."

"You're pardoned," Riou told her teasingly, standing up and stretching. "And for the record, I hide because Shu is terrifying sometimes."

He felt a rush of relief when Nanami laughed and grabbed his wrist. "Alright, whatever you say. Come on, let's go get something to eat."

They left the roof smiling and teasing each other, but Riou knew this wouldn't be the last he heard of the subject. Nanami was willing to drop it for now, as she always was, and pretend she was reassured, but this wasn't the end. And her words echoed in his mind:

_"I'm just scared that there won't be any of you left once this is over."_

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Months later, standing over his sister's body in the dead silence of Rockaxe Castle and too numb to feel anything, Riou heard those words again and wondered if she had been right.

She was gone. And now so was he.


End file.
